On 13 November I asked the following question (shortened here, see original
post at
http://makeashorterlink.com/?N255323F2 for more detail):
-------->%---------
What would others on the list think of this approach, designed to be as
simple as possible:
Non-cookied user arrives at any page of the site. A JavaScript "prompt" box,
therefore looking like a UI-standard dialog box, pops up:
+------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Please help us improve corporation.com! |
| |
| Just answer this one question: |
| Why are you visiting corporation.com today? |
| ____________________________________________ |
| |____________________________________________| |
| |
| [ OK ] [ Cancel ] |
+------------------------------------------------+
[...]
So I was just wondering what people think. Would it get results? Are the
technical problems I'm not foreseeing? Would a traditional pop-up survey be
better? Are all such online surveys a bad idea?
-------->%---------
Following my instinct and the majority of opinions I received, I decided not
to risk implementing somthing like this. My reasons were mainly
1. Very high potential annoyance factor
2. Strictly speaking a mis-use of technology (critical alert used for
optional info-gathering)
3. Quality of answers still likely to be low. (It's a difficult question to
answer; what if the user has several goals?)
Below are all 11 responses I received. The method William Hudson suggests
seems to me the best option. Also at the end I've added another good
approach that I saw elsewhere. Thanks very much to all respondents and sorry
for taking so long to post the summary!
francois
1. --------------------
A company called OpinionLab (http://www.opinionlab.com/) does something
similar. They also let the site administrator customize and the user to
offer a simple response or detailed information. Actually, it seems fully
customizable. Of course they also offer a series of reporting tools and
probably much more.
2. --------------------
I totally agree with you on this one [...]
The only worry I would have with the entry pop-up is that it's an
open-ended question which might instinctively deter users from wanting
to answer - perhaps this pop-up should have a number of choices - open
number of choices? - and a text free area for those that don't find
their option there...
3. --------------------
The single question survey, answered once and never seen again, seems like a
good way to gain valuable information with minimal annoyance to the user. I
would, however, include the "Contact us" information in the first survey
box, rather than forcing users to click twice.
4. --------------------
if a site presented me with the first dialogue box I would be annoyed, click
cancel and file it in memory as a reason not to go back. I would also try to
get round it by either disabling javascript or not accepting cookies from
that domain.
However, my displeasure at that would pale into insignificance when I was
presented with a further pop-up on leaving the site.
By and large I can't think of any good reasons for using pop-ups (I know
there have been recent discussions) and certainly not this one.
Technical reasons for not using this method:
a user might not have javascript enabled or may be using a browser that
doesn't handle javascript (e.g. a text browser)
a user might not have cookies enabled
Usability/accessibility reasons for not using this method:
the use of pop-ups is disorientating for non-savvy users and those with
visual/cognitive impairments
5. --------------------
[follow-up to the above:]
> On the whole would you consider using a system prompt box (dialog box)
> worse, less bad, or just as bad as a pop-up window?
Off the top of my head I would say just as bad. I'm not sure how, for
instance a screen reader will cope with the change of focus when the
operating system throws up a box as to when a piece of javascript in a web
app opens it.
> I'd have thought that system prompts have much less of such a
> problem, as
> they pop up regularly during computer use anyway.
Just because they occur regularly during computer use doesn't mean that they
are easy for certain groups of users to deal with. By and large they only
occur when either the user is doing something that prompts a dialogue box
(saving, locating an file, searching, printing etc) or something bad is
about to happen (do you really want to delete this really important system
file). In case 1 the user can/should expect the box, and in case 2 the users
continued action is halted because of possible consequences.
btw, you should maybe be aware that I'm a web developer with a strong
interest in accessibility rather than an HCI expert.
6. --------------------
No scientific answer I'm afraid but coincidentally we've just added a
"why are you here" questionnaire to our web site:
http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design (see the top news item). We've used an
incentive to promote replies, but responses so far are a little thin.
I'd be happy to swap a WebTrends report of our site with yours if you're
curious - we also have some puzzling visitor statistics!
7. --------------------
technical answer to the javascript question ... no, you can't add in a logo
or a hyperlink to a javascript confirm box. But you can make the simply
designed html popup as you described (closing the popup could trigger the
same action as hitting cancel button -- net result: you don't get a
response from that user.)
problem with setting the cookie to track whether the user has already
answered is if the same user visits the site from another machine. Hugely
annoying to have to answer multiple times. Maybe the answer is to use
statistical technique of presenting the popup to only a sample of users,
rather than to ALL users who hit the site -- you get enough data to draw
conslusions from a small sample, and there is less chance that a single
user will be presented with the prompt multiple times
8. --------------------
I was thinking of a similar question a few days ago, and why nobody
poses it!
IMO to answer "why are you here" might be difficult to express to many
people and your secondary question might arise.
Instead I'd ask "what are you trying to achieve". The user's purpose,
their target.
I'd let the user choose from a list of previous answers or add a free
text new one of their own.
This is not to restrict the answers but to help the user see the vein of
other answers by other people and eventually identify themselves with
one, or get inspired by reading the (short) list.
I wouldn't ask permission to ask the question, I'd rather put it
somewhere everywhere like one of these new format ads. So it's never in
the user's way to the content, and the user doesn't dismiss the dialog
without answering because it's in their way.
Also, I'd try to think something for non Englisk speakers.
As a complement, there MUST be a link to a form where the user may write
a longer comment. This will prevent them to try to do it into the one
liner original question space.
You might get more detailed messages from people who are delighted or
furious. Both deserve to be read by more than one person who must not be
the site "creator", the one (or more) that will defend it against
"attack" by those silly users who do not understand.
As of the satisfaction or not, I think that this might be quite
meaningless. I'd try to make the logs speak.
9. --------------------
An alternative is to add questions on the contact form (or another
existing form).
When I mocked up a contact form for a client in 1998, I added a
mini feedback area to it. They decided to include it on the live
site. The feedback area used small type and was between the
message box and submit button. It asked:
1) How did you find out about this site? (text box)
2) What information were you looking for here? (text box)
3) Did you find it? (yes/no radio buttons)
4) Will you return (yes/no radio buttons)
[...]
When I asked [the client] if visitors filled in that part of the
form they said that they did and had received positive feedback
but I don't have any actual stats.
Otherwise, I'd be wary of using pop-ups. I believe that Mozilla
will continue to gain ground as a browser and it allows users to
block unrequested pop-ups. NetCaptor has the same feature and
I'm sure other browsers do too.
10. --------------------
Conceptually this is a good idea but the
implementation is worrying.
It will be very hard to categorise the reasons
that customers will give in the first box.
Anything that interrupts the flow will annoy and confuse
the "nervous" customer sending them away.
It might be a better idea to record the "visit" to the site
and then to ask a few relevant yes/no or "single click choice"
type of questions as they leave the site.
Even the "why are you here?" question couldbe asked at the end.
Asking anything up front will just help to remove part of the
reason they're on the site and not using another channel - speed.
11. --------------------
I can count on four hands the number of times I have ever answered those
"quick surveys". Where I have, I have done so where there is a micro radio
button style vote embedded in a side bar of a webpage, e.g. "should
marquee's be outlawed".
12. --------------------
From: Francois Jordaan
Subject: Best practice: "Where did you hear about this site?"
Seen on
http://www.morethan.com/
-----------------
TRAVEL QUOTE
Whilst we are calculating your quote please could you spare a moment to tell
us where you heard about our site.
[] TV ad/Press ad or Poster
[] Interact TV site WAP phone
[] Article in the press
[] Door drop or mailing
[] Recommendation by a friend or relative
[] MORE TH>N Magazine Please enter the advert ref. if known
NEXT >
-----------------
Now, quite possibly it's not actually "calculating your quote" while you're
doing this -- the process may be near instantaneous, or saving the delay for
the next step, but nevertheless, at this junction you are very *unlikely* to
find this interruption intrusive. It is far less likely to be ignored here
than as an optional tail-end to a long registration form. (And this doesn't
even require registration, so they should be getting more responses.)
There's a lot of give-and-take with websites, and in this case, you're happy
to give, because you feel as if you're still getting what you want.
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